'This Week' Transcript: Brown, Corker, Gibbs

Dec. 28, 2008 — -- ABC'S "THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS"

TAPPER: Good morning, everyone. George Stephanopoulos is takinga well deserved vacation this week.

Joining us this morning from Cleveland, Democratic SenatorSherrod Brown of Ohio, and from Chattanooga, Republican Senator BobCorker of Tennessee.

Of course, gentlemen, the big story is the economy, and we'll getto that in a second. But first, for the second day in a row, Israelis launching air raids into Gaza as a response to Hamas violating thefragile cease-fire and firing rockets into southern Israel. The deathtoll so far is the largest in this conflict in decades. About 280killed, more than 600 wounded. Hamas is now calling for a thirdintifidah.

Senator Corker, you're a member of the Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee. Are you at all concerned that these Israeli strikes aredisproportionate or will ultimately hurt the cause of peace in theregion?

CORKER: Well, look, certainly I'm concerned about the conflictitself. This is the largest, as you mentioned, in casualties we'vehad in two decades there, and I think the Palestinian government hasactually condemned Hamas.

So far, certainly all of us -- our hearts and prayers go out topeople on both sides, and certainly especially the civilians who havebeen harmed in the Gaza area. But mostly, it's been confined topeople who are part of the security forces for Hamas, and certainlyall of us want to see an end to this conflict and some long-term peacesettlement actually occur there.

TAPPER: Senator Brown, Israel is now talking about sendingground troops. They're calling up the reservists. Is this a goodidea?

BROWN: I'm not sure it's a good idea. I mean, Israel certainlyhas the right to self-defense, of course. Hamas has not recognizedIsrael's right to exist. What Hamas has done by shooting its missilesinto Israel has been condemned, as Senator Corker said, condemned bythe Palestinian Authority and so many others.

But I'm hopeful that with a new president -- you know, you lookat President Bush is now in a petty weakened state, and countriesaround the world know that. I'm hopeful that as this transitioncomes, as we look to January, that strong presidential leadership canmake a difference here.

TAPPER: All right. Turning to the economy. In this morning'sWashington Post, incoming Obama economic adviser Larry Summers writesthat, quote, "in this crisis, doing too little poses a greater threatthan doing too much." The Obama team is working with Congress,pushing them to have an economic stimulus package of perhaps as muchas $850 billion on President-elect Obama's desk by inauguration day.

Senator Brown, how big should this package be? What number areyou looking for?

BROWN: Well, I'm not looking for a number today. You know, asthis -- as we get more and more -- as we see more and more how thiseconomy is going, that number continues to increase, that economists,conservative and liberal economists alike, are calling for it. It wasoriginally a few hundred billion, then it was $500, now it's a biggernumber than that.

When you see what's happened with consumer spending, at Christmasespecially, Christmas sales, holiday sales, and you understand that 70percent of the economy is all about consumer spending, we need a realstimulus to get people to spend money. And that means putting moneyin infrastructure, water and sewer.

I held around Ohio about 130 roundtables in all 88 counties inthe last couple of years, and one of the things I hear everywhere,mostly from economic development people, is that the federalgovernment doesn't do what it used to do with water and sewer systems,and if we don't invest in water and sewer, we can't do the kind oflong-term economic development and job growth we need.

So it's not just shovel-ready projects that are ready to go nowthat will create jobs. It's also green jobs, and it's also buildingfor the future. So when you do economic stimulus, it really needs tolook at what kinds of jobs it's going to create, not just immediately,but two years, five years, 10 years down the road.

TAPPER: Senator Corker, you voted against the last stimuluspackage, which was a relatively paltry $152 billion. How much are youwilling to spend here?

CORKER: Well, the last stimulus package was silly. It had noeffect and I certainly voted against it.

I think at the end of the day, the biggest thing we can do still-- and I know that every president during an economic downturn has tofeel like a package is forthcoming, and we hope that it's productive.The minimum requirement ought to be that it does no harm.

But still, the biggest thing we can do -- and what I'm seeinghere in my own state -- is get the credit markets functioning so thatlocal banks are lending money to small businesses that create the jobsthat all of us care so much about.

So I'm not looking at any number. Certainly I hope that whateverwe do is transparent, I hopes it goes through the regular committeeprocess, I hope we have an opportunity to see the effect. Andcertainly, anything that's done in a stimulus package ought to bethose kinds of things that are productive and move us ahead and arenot just throwing money out in order to say that we've done something.

So I'm concerned about the size of it. You know, the numbersthat have been thrown out are actually larger in today's dollars thanthe entire interstate system that was built 50 or 60 years ago. Sowhatever we do, again, let's make sure that it's productive, itactually consists of things that need to be done, and actually moveour economy ahead.

And let's remember the backdrop. A year ago, we were concernedabout the huge federal deficit that we have. We still have theMedicare and Social Security issue to deal with.

So -- and let me mention one other thing, the retail numbers.There's actually to me a silver lining there, and that is that we havecitizens in this country that have taken on far too much debt. Whatwe saw during the retail, this last retail cycle was people wereactually saving money.